Is it Just? Is it Fair Play?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1049, 28 September 1911, Page 4

Is it Just? Is it Fair Play?

New Zealand is under a democratic form of Government.

Democracy means the Government of the People by the People. Its first principle is ; One adult, one vote ; one vote, one value. Every vote of equal value with every other vote. But on one great question, democratic New Zealand denies the first principle of democracy. At the Licensing Poll one vote is not equal to another vote. To win “ No-License,’.’ a threefifths majority must be secured. A three-fifths majority means 60 to 40. It means 3 to 2. It means \Vz to I.

It means that a liquor man’s vote is worth 50 per cent, more than the vote of a temperance man.

When a temperance voter and a liquor voter vote for a Parliamentary candidate each vote counts I. -,T When, at the same time and place, they vote on the Licensing issue, the liquor man counts li and the temperance man only I. The liquor vote is worth 50 per cent, more than the temperance vote.

What has happened to alter the value?

Is the temperance voter less intelligent, less concerned for his country’s well-being, less able to judge what is for her good, that so his vote is given this smaller value?

The handicap is a direct insult to the intelligence of the temperance voter.

It declares him to be less capable of judging what is for his country’s good, than the drunken wastrel who votes for the liquor that has robbed him of his..manhood. The temperance voter when asked for his vote by a Parliamentary candidate who stands for the threefifths majority should say to him: “ When you cease to insult me; when you cease to under-rate the value of my vote; when you are willing to admit that my vote is of equal worth with the other man’s vote-then, and not till then, shall I think of voting for you !”

If a candidate will not admit the equal value of your vote with the other man’s, let him rely on the other man’s.

Democracy means majority rule. The will of the majority must prevail. The three-fifths majority reverses the democratic principle. It means minority rule. It declares that 41 people shall prevail over 59. Minority rule prevails over the largest part of the Dominion today. The country which boasts its Democratic Government stultifies itself, and lives under the rule of the minority.

There are 46 electorates where the vote of the majority is ignored.

46 electorates under minority rule.

46 electorates out of 76 in Democratic New Zealand, where the democratic principle is flouted and the democracy denied its rights. This must not continue.

If the principle of democracy is a sound one it must apply all round. Fair play must prevail. The unjust handicap must be removed.

The insult which has so long been offered to the temperance voters, who represent neither the least intelligent nor the least disinterested section of the community must be withdrawn.

The Liquor Party can’t be allowed the loaded dice.

It must be a fair fight and no favour.

The hurdles must be made equal. The racers must start off the same mark.

The three-fifths handicap must go!